


We Rise (Together)

by mihrsuri



Series: TWW AUs [3]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Community: purimgifts, Female Friendship, Gen, Recovery, Trauma, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22651714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: It was CJ who was kidnapped, not Zoey.
Series: TWW AUs [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629316
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	We Rise (Together)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Storyteller1358](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyteller1358/gifts).



“So. So my son was the warning shot, after all. So you decided, you decided to take my daughter, the daughter I am not allowed to rage over, not allowed to mourn because the damn press will gossip, will make things worse. Do you know, if this is your punishment, Lord, then bring it upon me alone. Not those I love, who do not deserve it.”

There is no priest, no benediction. No absolution and no answer. Instead the President of the United States waits, in a dark Cathedral alone. 

-

CJ knows now, knows things can never be the same. She will never be the same person, the same anything that she was before (there are so many things that take her back - ropes and small spaces and the smell of oil...) but she is rebuilding someone else, someone who might even resemble her old self. 

There are heavy scars on her wrists, on her legs and on her stomach. There are days when they ache and she knows now that they will always ache, at least a little. 

-

“It’s something about how you want to be able to be the same but then you meet the cliche of how you never will be” 

Josh says it to her quietly, over beers together where they are consciously sitting apart. It’s CJ who reaches, carefully, to hug him, her beautiful thoughtful brother. 

-

“She thought I’d blame her” 

Leo’s anguish, heard through his office door is a pain in her heart. 

-

Donna. Carol. Ginger. Mrs Landingham. The First Lady. All the women of the West Wing are her light. Their arms surround her, always and it helps to know that they will be there and they will defend her. 

-

The CJ Cregg that is now is not the same woman but then, CJ thinks, looking down at her baby daughter with a smile, she is still standing. 

.


End file.
